Dark Come Soon
by c.margo
Summary: She is a darkness. She breathes it. Attracts it. Lives it. And when it's about to swallow her whole, she hopes that he'll be the one to save her.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_Dark, you can't come soon enough for me._

Elena Gilbert's head is swimming in a dark haze. Her head hurt and she felt heavier than usual, like she had slept for longer than she should have. Her cheek is pressed into a mattress on the floor, her shoes are on and she doesn't have a blanket. That much she can tell. It takes effort to un-stick her eyelids but when she does she can see. . .

There's darkness. It's everywhere. There's no light to permeate it. No windows, no moon, no lamps, no cracks. There's nothing, completely pitch black. She can feel it pressing in on her in all directions. She can't tell where she is, she can't sense if there's anything around her. . .she could be nowhere for all she knows. Maybe she'd gone blind. Maybe this is what not existing feels like. Maybe this is death.

The rapid beating of her panicked heart proved otherwise.

Elena didn't know how long she'd been stuck in this room. She tried to tell herself to stay calm but it wasn't working. Her breath was coming in short quick spurts and she could feel herself starting to sweat. She hurriedly patted her jeans in search of her phone but, of course, there was nothing there.

Of their own accord her legs started crab walking her backwards, scurrying until she hit the wall. "H-hello?" She nearly sobbed.

Hearing nothing, she swallowed her tears as she used the wall to guide her into a standing position. Slowly, painfully, she inched her way around the perimeter of the room feeling for a door or a chair, or anything really that would help her gauge where she was. She tripped over something that she later deduced was a toilet, but that and the threadbare child's cot she'd woken up on seemed to be the only company she had in her cell.

She refused to admit to it to herself that she had no way out. There had to be something. A seam she had missed, a crack in the plaster. She went around, and around hoping each time to find something different to give her an idea. Each time more frazzled than the last, desperately fighting the urge to cry or scream or just let her heart burst. All she needed was one thread of hope. But the more she tried and the less she found, the more she broke.

By the time Elena gave up, she was at her wits end. The thin grasp she had on her gut wrenching terror had slipped completely and she found herself screaming and pounding on the walls with the little strength she had. _Begging_ for someone to _please_ let her out. To _please help her_.

"Help me," She whispered pitifully, knowing that no one could hear her, her face crumbling into despair. And soon, her spent body followed into a heap on the floor.

She was gone again, into the darkness of her mind. And she knew, _just knew_, that she wasn't going to be lucky enough to wake up from this nightmare. This situation had become the norm for her. This was her life now, being trapped and afraid, with no way out.

x

There was a time when the darkness comforted her. It meant the day was over and she could fall away into the numbness that it brought to her. She didn't have to exist if she didn't want to, and most of the time. . .she really didn't want to. That was after her parents died. Before that…everything was lightness. She was happy and normal and free to be a stupid teenaged girl falling in love with her best friend. There were no shadows in her life.

Now there's nothing but. She is a darkness. She breathes it. Attracts it. Lives it.

She wallowed, as her brother had: quietly, pathetically, alone. When she met Stefan she finally thought she could feel the sunlight creep back into her life. He made her feel normal and happy again, like there was still love and goodness waiting in the world for her. But she soon found out how wrong she was. He just made her not as lonely in the life that had become so desolate.

And then there was darkness in the form of a man and he redefined the word. He was beautiful and psychotic. The only thing light about him was his eyes…but they didn't covey that lightness. Those eyes were filled with so much ice it could physically chill her if she stared into them for too long. She spent a good portion of her time knowing him secretly terrified of him. But now, when she found herself trapped in this overwhelming, all consuming darkness, the only thing she could hope for was that he'd find her. That he was, at that moment, coming for her, to save her.

One of them, both of them. It didn't matter.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, this is my first story in a very, very long time. I wasn't planning on writing it but my awesome friend, Sandy pressured me into it.

It's going to be sort of based around my interpretation of the song Dark Come Soon by Tegan and Sara. If you haven't heard of it/them I suggest you go listen if only because I think they're amazing.

So, read and please review! I need honest feedback. :)


	2. Dark, You Can't Come Soon Enough For Me

**Chapter One**

_Dark, you can't come soon enough for me._

He knew something wasn't right, even as he kissed her. It was too good to be true. Elena was this beautiful, glowing light, who was far too moral even on her worst day to let him kiss her anywhere.

But she had let him. . . .

He knew Katherine and Elena were physically identical, but he also thought he knew, for damn sure, that that was as far as their similarities went. He honestly wasn't expecting the familiarity of that kiss. He allowed himself to drink it in and fall into it. He lost himself in how good it felt. He didn't want that little bitch anymore, so why was he so pleasantly surprised when Elena kissed him the way _she_ used to?

He needed to clear his head, he was going to go for a drive. Something was off. He just couldn't put his finger on it. No, he could, he just didn't actually think it was possible. But then he saw Elena drive past him, answering a call from Stefan, and the pieces fell together.

If he were human, he would've flown through the windshield from the momentum of the sudden stop. He sat, for no more than a second, staring dazed out of his window before he snapped out it. He left his car running, door open, slanted on the road to run back to the Gilbert's house.

He could hear her before he saw her, ". . . . Can you meet me there?. . . . I love you Stefan."

He got there just as she shut the door behind her, calling up the stairs for Jeremy.

But even that was too late. Her scream was spirited away on the wind, just as she was.

John Gilbert was laying, dead, in a pool of his own blood. The house was as silent as death, itself. No heartbeats, no breathing, no Elena.

Katherine had already been and gone.

So that's what Damon did, but not before leaving the kitchen wall baring the marks of his outrage.

x

Damon Salvatore always worked solo in the past, but he was coming to realize in matters such as these that maybe having backup wasn't such a bad thing. In fact, the moment he realized that Katherine Pierce had Elena he was counting on backup because it would take more than him to put a stake through her.

But, of course, because he'd actually acknowledged that he needed the help of those he usually cast aside, he received next to none.

His wonderful brother was decidedly absent. His phone went to voicemail every time he called. Which. . .six. He'd called six times before changing tactics and dialing Alaric. The teacher had been less than helpful with bumblings about "What? How? What are we going to do?" Or something of the like. Damon had neither the patience nor the time to pretend to be forthcoming with answers to stupid questions. But he had promised to meet Damon at the witch's house with all the weapons he owned. So at least that was something.

Bonnie herself had been ready to spit fire when he quite literally ran into her on her way out the door. Her jaw was set, warning him with her eyes that she was beyond playing his games now, she tried to sidestep him. She stopped in her tracks, all notions of leaving wiped from her mind, the moment she heard him say, "Katherine was here. She took Elena. I need your help."

"What? Where? Damon, where is she!" She said, her wide eyes immediately filling up with tears.

"If I knew that, witch, I wouldn't have to come to you, now would I?" He ground out. His already terrible temper had been to its breaking point and back multiple times tonight, it was a miracle he hadn't lain a hand on her yet. The only thing keeping him remotely in check was the reminder that at that moment he was Elena's only chance at survival. Him and Bonnie's willingness to help him.

Bonnie let his tone slide-it was unimportant at the moment-doing an about face and rushing back into the house. Without even glancing back, her voice, urgent and afraid, floated back to him, "Damon, get in here."

He needed no more invitation than that. In no time flat she had a map and a spell book sloppily opened on the coffee table, turning pages at an almost vicious pace until she came to what she needed. She skimmed the page and Damon watched, pacing around the living room as she disappeared upstairs and came back down with a bracelet he assumed belonged to Elena.

She tried the spell a handful of times and each time she finished with a shake of her head, furrowing her brow.

Finally, coming closer to look over what she was doing, Damon asked in the nicest tone he could, "What? What is it?"

She shook her head again, frustrated with herself, "I don't know. She's moving. I can't get a lock on where she is. I can tell you the general direction. . ."

He waited but she didn't continue until he gave her one of those looks, the looks that generally sent humans into screaming fits, "Spit it out."

"West. They're heading west. The last town they hit was Redford."

Damon snatched a pen off the table and wrote his cell phone number on the corner of the map, "Keep doing the spell. Call me, let me know where they're heading."

All Bonnie could do was settle herself in on the carpet and nod, "Of course."

"And try to get a hold of Stefan," He said over his shoulder on his way out the door, meeting Ric on the curb, trunk of vampire weapons already open, awaiting him.

x

It's like playing cat and mouse. Every time he's sure they're about to catch up to them, Bonnie calls and says they've changed direction and then he stops, kicks the shit out of something, and starts again towards what he hopes will be Elena, alive and well.

And now Stefan's out there looking for her too. After three hours he'd finally got the call, Stefan on the other end blathering on and on about how Damon shouldn't have left without him and blah, blah, blah. He was on edge, regardless. The knowledge that the odds were slightly better now that the both of them were out looking for her did little to quell his anxiety because he knew that if it came to a fight-and with Katherine it most definitely would come to a fight-Stefan would not stand a chance. At least Damon would be able to put up enough of a fight to possibly get them out alive.

And yes, maybe the part of his mind that wasn't totally focused on the severity of the situation did want to be her savior, for once. No, twice. But he was due for a good old fashion swooping in and saving of the girl.

Despite Alaric's presence in the car it was a quiet, lonely car ride spanning a good third of the country, being had a breakneck speeds. After the first 500 or so miles, Alaric had given up on conversation, and Damon was left with thoughts that were eating him alive. Tense was a good word to describe the atmosphere. Very, very tense.

Battle strategies were flying by like there was a projector behind his eyes. Ways to kill Katherine, ways to get killed, what he'd do if she had cronies with her. How would Elena look? Would she be hurt? Dead? Undead?

He didn't know what was worse. Certainly he'd rather have her be a part his life as a vampire than not at all, but not at the hands of his wicked ex-lover. Not if he could help it. He tried to convince himself that she'd be okay because this was Elena. . .and she just couldn't not be alright. Not when he'd finally. . .just not now. Not ever.

He'd spent the equivalent of two lifetimes pining over a cold hearted bitch who didn't want him and now that he'd finally let her go and found someone who was worth it. . .he simply would not live with himself if he lost it, her, his newfound humanity. It made him weak, it made him soft, he wasn't one forth of the killing machine he used to be but he was slowly becoming alright with that. As long as one day, Elena would know that it was for her. If it made her happy, if she could see how much better he'd become, he knew it would all be worth it.

And if it brought her that much closer to him, that much further from his brother, then so be it.

He'd stopped feeding on humans weeks ago. Originally it was to keep the council of his trail. But now he also saw that a tally had been marked down in his favor. He knew that his bagged blood diet meant something to her. He wasn't sure about how much he actually cared about human life in general yet, but he was aware that there were a few of them that were impossible to pretend meant nothing at all. It was no coincidence that they were all tied to Elena in some regard.

If Damon wasn't being so single-mindedly focused on the task at hand he'd probably be able to roll his eyes in the rearview mirror at his marshmallow interiors and make himself believe that this, too, could roll right off his back with a well placed witticism.

He may have finally gotten in touch with his humanity but he'd learned that some things. . .you just had to flip the switch for. This was one of them.

x

They'd been about thirty miles outside of Albuquerque when he finally got the call that Elena'd stopped moving. Bonnie couldn't give him an exact location but he knew a few vampires that might've gotten wind of Katherine who could be persuaded to give him a hint or two.

Alaric had been giving him worried glances for roughly thirty six hours. He was worried about what the vampire would do, what lengths he would go to. And yes, if he was being honest, he was afraid that not even the ring he wore would get him out of this alive. When Damon nearly flipped the car doing a u-turn that would put them en-route to Utah's heartland, he'd finally had to ask.

"Do you have any clue how we're going to actually find her? Utah is a big state, they could be-"

"I know that. I have a friend who might know some people."

He couldn't help himself, he had to take the opportunity to make the jab, "You have friends?"

Damon's grip on the steering wheel tightened, something he thought was impossible as it was. His jaw twitched and Alaric realized that nothing he said could lighten the mood. Now really wasn't the time.

"So what's gonna happen when we find her?" He asked, clearing his throat after a moment of silence.

Apparently that wasn't a good thing to say either.

x

Damon met Jack in the early 1970's and he soon learned of his uncanny way of becoming suddenly privy to valuable information. Damon had come to him in the past seeking answers and Jack had happily doled them out without breaking a sweat. He just knew things. In fact, he wasn't even surprised when Damon and Alaric showed up on his doorstep, scowling and tired, respectively, demanding his assistance. Which he provided to the best of his ability.

Jack sent him to another vampire who knew a vampire who might know a witch who knew a witch. And she was the one who was finally strong enough to break through whatever hocus pocus Katherine had had placed on wherever she was staying.

It ended up being a metal shack built high up, into the mountain range in the pinprick town of Aurora, Utah. It was rusty and caving in, and it had a padlock on the door, which Damon guessed was just for show. He paused a moment outside, Alaric standing behind him loaded down with all the vervain darts and compressed air guns he could carry, barely containing his nervous energy, to listen to what was going on within. He sensed movement, but there were no heartbeats to speak of other than Ric's.

Katherine had created herself some brand new henchmen to do her grunt work.

"Shoot first, think later," He told Alaric before he ripped the flimsy metal door clear off its hinges. The vampire who was waiting on the other side skittered back into the shadows before the sun could fry him any further. But it didn't matter, Damon was faster than him and had his decapitated head rolling on the dirty ground before his skin could even stop sizzling.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized that this must have been an old mine of some sort. The shack was positively minuscule and the only thing that was inside was a hole in the dirt and a rickety metal staircase that let down into pitch darkness that not even Damon, with his vampire senses could see through.

He wasted no time on his way into the abyss, Alaric following although he was much slower and clumsier in going. When he reached the bottom he found himself in something that felt more like a medieval catacomb than an abandoned mine. Torches of fire were stuck into modern metal holders on the dirt and rock walls, bathing the small room in warm, flickering oranges and yellows.

They also managed to illuminate the faces of several completely homicidal looking vampires, surrounding him in a half circle, attempting to send him back up from whence he came.

But, of course, he couldn't have that. Damon was on auto-pilot. This was just one more hurdle he had to-and would-jump over. There was nothing else in the world other than getting passed them and through the corridor they were blocking.

One after another they came at him and he systematically tore them apart until, like a colony of bees when the hive was disturbed, swarms of Katherine's vampire minions emptied into the room aiming to end him.

These vampires were new, a couple years old at most and had nothing on his strength, his speed, or his experience. But they did have numbers on him. He was only one vampire against never ending droves of creatures driven mad by obsession and lust for their own personal Queen of the Damned. He'd been there before. He'd been so consumed by his love for Katherine that he'd do anything and everything she even hinted at wanting. They wouldn't stop until they were either dead or she told them it was time to back off.

He had to let his instincts completely take over while he waited for his pathetic excuse for a cavalry to come up behind him, taking some of the load off.

He had a squirming, blonde woman's neck in a vice grip from behind, a teenage boy on his back and still another man charging for him when, finally, he felt the blessed _wooshing_ of wind past his ear, accompanied by the weight on his back falling away completely. He ripped off the head of the woman before turning to Alaric in time to catch a stake in mid air and shove it through the ribcage of the man who'd just began closing his fist around Damon's throat.

"Took you long enough," He grunted before the two set to work destroying the rest of their assailants.

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, Damon is...a difficult character. Let's just go with that. If you read please review. I need to hear what you think! :)


	3. Saved From One More Day Of Misery

**Chapter Two**

_Saved from one more day of misery._

Elena hadn't seen light in. . .she didn't even know how long. The only thing that measured the time she'd been trapped was how hungry she was and how raw her throat felt. Logically, she knew it couldn't have been more that a few days but it felt so much longer, and anyway, her mind was starting to lose the capacity to process logic.

The only thing she had to pass the time was wondering how she was going to die.

She thought she might suffocate before she starved or died of dehydration. She couldn't feel any wind and there was absolutely no sound, let alone one that could be attributed to a vent. But every time she felt the pangs of hunger stab away at her innards, she thought otherwise. Maybe that alone would kill her.

Sometimes she thought that maybe she'd go insane before any of that happened. She'd been isolated completely. Whoever was trying to kill her this time was nothing, if not the most sadistic, cruel person-thing-to ever roam the earth. She hadn't had any human contact to speak of in far too long, so maybe by the time death took her she wouldn't even be coherent enough to realize it was happening.

She tried to keep her eyes closed most of the time. She didn't like having her eyes open when she couldn't see anything. But then she'd fall asleep and although it passed the time Elena was afraid it would pass _too much_ time and she'd miss it if someone came for her.

It became a sort of fantasy, trying to guess where she was and who with. The last thing she remembered was opening the door to her house and then. . .it was blank. So really, it could be any number of combinations. Was she above ground or below? Within the Mystic Falls town limits or outside of the state altogether? She wondered if people had realized she was gone yet, if Jenna was worried yet, if Jeremy cared. If Stefan or Damon were about to save her. . .or not.

And if not, she had to be alert enough to save herself if the opportunity was presented.

So she sat, leaned up against the wall for indiscernible amounts of time, trying not to nod off.

x

It felt like forever, but it probably only took minutes to scatter the broken, decomposed bodies around the underground room. Damon left Alaric behind to make sure all the vampires he'd hit with vervain ended up with a stake in their heart.

Once in the tunnel, it was a straight shot, no decisions he had to make about which direction he had to go. And then he heard it.

It was Elena's voice. But she was laughing and it was low and playful. And if it were really Elena. . .well, she probably wasn't in any state to giggle at the moment. Even though he'd overlain his emotions with the apathy he needed to survive, he could still feel his gut clench at the thought of what could be happening to her at that very moment. He needed to save her and he would fail if she was hurt.

He still felt the hate for Katherine. For lying to him, using him, leaving him. For robbing him of his life, and then of his afterlife. But so much more for the fact that she thought it was okay to waltz into his life, his town, and ruin everything all over again. To do whatever she pleased with people that mattered. To attempt to shatter the person who mattered most.

In the state he was in, though, it all blended into blind need.

Things he just had to do, by any means necessary.

Survive Katherine. Save Elena.

He was so much closer to both.

x

Damon knew that Katherine felt him coming. He knew she knew he knew and so on and so forth.

He had to hand it to her. He wasn't expecting to walk into a full on lair when he'd taken off down the hole up in the miner's shack. There were tall candle's flickering in all directions and sofa's pushed up against the wall. A globe, some tables, a dead human in the corner drained of her blood. She even had her vampire bodyguards standing by against the back wall.

And there she was, waiting for him with her hands on her hips, head cocked, a smirk pulling at her red painted lips. He was again confronted with just how alike and how dissimilar they were. The same skin tone, the same eye color, the same hair color, the same body, even. But Katherine's curls were pulled off to the side and Elena wouldn't have been caught dead in the red and black lace mock corset, or the skintight jeans, or the stiletto boots Katherine was looking so at home in. Elena wouldn't have radiated amusement at this moment.

He didn't say anything, yet. He stood facing her in their own personal Mexican standoff until she said, "Damon. What a lovely surprise, how nice of you to drop by."

"Cut the shit, Katherine." He said and his jaw twitched a little.

"Ooh," She said, lowly, her lips forming a mocking 'o', "Such language. Didn't your mother teach you not to swear at a lady?"

She took a few long, slow steps towards him, giggling to herself. And Damon wanted to rip her to shreds, but he was smarter than that, he knew he couldn't. He'd planned numerous ways to kill her, but once he turned on his senses he'd remembered how unlikely that was to happen. She'd kill him and then Elena would be gone too, if she wasn't already.

Katherine sobered, finally seeing that she wasn't going to get any more reaction from him than the glare he was sending her. She sighed to herself, "Fine, be that way."

"Where's Elena, Katherine? I'm not playing your games this time," He said, voice dangerously low.

She circled him, like a predator would do to prey and Damon stood stock still following her with his eyes as she did. Her index finger brushed along his chest, across his shoulder blades and around again smiling that evil smile at him. The one he used to mistake for simply mischievous. Sexy, even. And then she said the words, "Oh, but you already have, love. And you've won. Congratulations."

His brow furrowed and the sick sensation of realization pooled inside him. She'd played him. Again. Even coasting on base instinct, he didn't take well to being made for a fool. He'd spent days wildly searching for a girl he half thought was already dead. . .and here he was being told it wasn't real? He couldn't tell if it made sense or not. Katherine loved to play with people. But she also loved killing them.

"Aw, you thought I was going to kill her, didn't you? Damon, my dear, I thought you knew me better than that," Katherine taunted, "Everything is a game. I just wanted to see who'd go furthest, fastest. And now I have. I suppose I should've guesses after that _touching_ display of yours."

Words failed him, and his control slipped away completely. His canines lengthened and the veins around his eyes raised as he lunged for her neck, slamming Katherine against the rock wall behind her. The slight pain she'd felt seemed little more to her than an annoyance as she peeled his fingers from her throat with ease.

"Did you really think that would work?" She raised her eyebrow staring into Damon's eyes, his face still contorted in vampiric rage, "You'll never be strong enough to kill me, Damon, and you know it. Now, I'm giving you what you came for. Patrick will take you to your Elena and you'll both walk out unharmed."

"Until you decide you're bored enough to come after her for real, right? That's how it works? The world stands still when Katherine Pierce says it does?"

"See? You do know me well," She smiled indulgently at him, pushing him away from her, "But no, I don't take issue with Elena. In fact, I'm quite intrigued by her. Besides, she is of my bloodline. If she were to die, so would it. And we can't have that now, can we?"

With that, she fell backwards, draping herself across a plush sofa, to study her nails, feigning boredom.

He was almost embarrassed by himself at this point. He really did know absolutely nothing about Katherine. He could decipher her no better than the next man. Everything he'd been through, all the worry and fear he'd felt the past couple of days, all the pain and loneliness he had ever felt was a game to her. Just something that passed her time.

One of the large vampire men who'd stood by watching their interaction caught Damon's attention when he abruptly stepped away from his post and silently disappeared down another staircase. He followed without a backwards glance.

x

Elena could feel her consciousness slipping away again. She held her head in her hands, pressing the heels of them into her eye sockets. Her hair was sliding through her fingers from the grease. Not only did she wreak but the toilet across the room from her was giving off a putrid smell. She'd found out that although she could used it, it wasn't actually hooked up to any plumbing. That and the onset of starvation and dehydration contributed to the various vomiting fits she'd undergone. It was a vicious circle and she just wanted it to end.

She wanted to give up.

But then she heard something. Something that was probably much louder to her than it actually was. It was the first sound not made by her that she'd heard in what could have been days. It sounded like the decompression of air.

Was someone here?

She lifted her head, but she collapsed against the wall when her weak legs gave out on her in her attempt to stand, landing her in an awkward position between the two.

Her chest swelled with hope, for the first time since she woke up. If this was a hallucination. . .oh God. If she was making this up she really would be done. She wouldn't be able to make herself come back from that devastation. She wouldn't be able to keep pushing.

There were the tiniest pin pricks of light forming around a door that couldn't have actually been there. She checked. To the point of monotony, she had _checked_. There wasn't a door before.

But then it slid aside and standing in front of blinding white light were two shadows of what she thought were men. She couldn't tell because she couldn't look. She folded in on herself to shield her sensitive eyes from the light they'd become unaccustomed to. It burned and she couldn't swallow the scream before it bubbled up out of her.

She heard foot steps. Graceful but still heavy.

Someone whispered her name, tentatively reaching out to touch her. The body shielded much of the light, making it safe for her to peek out from behind her hands, just enough to take a glimpse at who had come for her.

She saw an angular, set jaw. And stormy, dark blue eyes swimming with rage and horror. It was Damon.

x

Patrick, Katherine's vampire bouncer, led Damon down into a cavernous, modern storage room, of sorts. Bright work lights were mounted into the rock above large white refrigerators, powered by a giant whirring generator on the far end.

No Elena.

But there was another room. This one wasn't cut jaggedly out of the mountain, the roof of it wasn't rounded, like the rest of what Damon had seen. It was a standalone metal and plaster. . .cube. The walls were smooth and the corners were sharp. He couldn't see a way in or out and when he tried to listen to what was inside, he heard nothing. Whatever this thing was made of was too thick to get through.

Patrick didn't say anything. He didn't do anything either. He planted himself directly in front one of the metal walls and just stood, staring at it.

"Well?"

"Hold your horses," Called a distinctly female voice from the direction of the stairway. She was tall and tan with long dark hair in tight spiral curls. She was probably in her thirties, at least. She walked the way all people with power walked, with their head held high and slowly as she pleased. She was a witch.

"Sorry, that ship's sailed," He said with a tight smirk.

"Mm-hmm," The woman didn't care about anything he said. She was bound to Katherine and did what she was asked and nothing else, which made her slightly bitter towards all things, "Step aside."

Damon didn't move, but Patrick took a sidestep to allow her to squeeze by. She rolled her shoulders, stretching her neck, and started a chant from memory. Within moments Damon could see and hear the effects. A large rectangular section of metal was raising in their direction. It was like taking off the top of a can, the air rushing through the cracks. Finally, he could hear passed the walls. There was a heartbeat and there was low, even breathing.

"There. Enjoy," The witch said with a sigh, dusting off her hands and disappearing back upstairs.

Patrick stepped forward, both palms flat against the new door. He gave a push and it automatically popped out the rest of the way and slid aside.

What he saw would be permanently seared into his brain. Elena, hunched over, against the back wall, her hands over her face, screaming in pain. His humanity was shocked back into place. He swore to himself, then and there, that no matter what Katherine said, even if she did never come to kill Elena, she deserved to die and he would make that happen. Someday, someway. It would be a long and agonizing death.

His face had fallen into disbelief.

He walked over to her slow enough to not startle her. When he reached her he raised a hand to her shoulder, whispering, "Elena?"

She was whimpering from the left over pain from the light, but chanced a quick look up at him. When she did he could tell the exact moment she realized it was him and she was safe.

Elena fell into him sobbing. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her head against him, his cheek at the crown of her head. Her voice was raw as the sound of his name continuously crept over her cracked lips but no matter how many times he shushed her she wouldn't stop. She couldn't stop. Because he saved her and she was going to be okay.

"It's okay, Elena, I've got you," He smoothed his hand over her hair one more time before scooping her up into his arms and out of her prison.

x

Damon carried her up the stairs and past Katherine. He didn't stop to so much as look at her, but everything about him tensed when he came near her.

"Bye now," She drawled from her seat. Her fingers waggling at them.

When he felt Elena shrink against him he used his speed to make it the rest of the way. Alaric was waiting in the shack and when he saw that Damon was back and he had Elena, his shoulders sagged with relief, "What happened?"

"Well, I have her don't I? Give her your jacket," Damon said.

Alaric didn't need to be asked twice. He took it off and passed it to Elena who looked up at Damon with a question in her eyes.

"It's still bright out there, cover your eyes with it."

It was sundown when they reached the car parked at the base of the mountain. Damon tossed Alaric his keys and slid into the backseat with Elena, "Nearest airport, go."

x

Damon checked them into a room at one of the hotel airports after a trip through the drive-through and Elena's request to please take a shower. She'd been mumbling her thanks to him every so often. Asking where Stefan was. If everyone at home was okay. But they were mumblings, and she said the same thing over and over.

Damon figured that it was a good sign that she was alert and talking though. He was worried, still, about the long-term effects the abduction would have even though he hid it from both her and Alaric well. This was one of the things he was most afraid of. He was afraid she was dead, and then he was afraid that she'd been tortured to insanity.

But as Katherine had stated, she wanted her bloodline to continue, so he had hope that she'd bounce back. He was certain she would because Elena always bounced back.

After her shower though, she came out blank. Her eyes were dark walls with nothing behind them. Her face was smooth as porcelain. She got dressed robotically and sat on the bed, waiting to be told what to do next.

She had finally slipped into shock, Damon thought.

x

Damon gave Alaric the keys to his car and directions to take it home. He was going on the plane with Elena.

They were sitting in the terminal, waiting for their plane back to Virginia to arrive, when Damon attempted to get a hold of Stefan again.

Why is it that every time he has something important to tell him he's out of range? Last time he'd turned his phone off while he was waiting for Caroline in the hospital, but this time there was no reason for it. So, he called Bonnie and, once again, gave her the message to relay.

He was nervously flipping his phone around when the announcer called for passengers to their flight to begin boarding. He stood up and reached for Elena's hand, pulling her with him. She hadn't done much on her own since the hotel room. She hadn't said anything at all.

That's why he was both shocked and relieved when she did finally speak.

"Damon? I don't want to back home," She said looking up at him, with a pleading look on her face.

"A little late for that, dontcha think, princess?" He sighed gently turning her in the direction of the gate but she shrugged him off and he let her. He was trying not to treat her like so much of a victim, even though she was. He had a feeling that Elena in any state wouldn't respond very well to that.

What Damon didn't realize, though, was that for the last thirty minutes or so she'd been quiet willingly. She'd been thinking. She wanted to go home to see Stefan and Bonnie and her family. But she'd developed a fear of home. She was afraid to go back and she was afraid to be without Damon. He'd saved her. Even though neither of them realized it, she was bonded to him now.

"I'm serious, Damon. Bad things happen there. I can't go back yet. I need a break from all the near death experiences and pain," Elena's eyes began to water as she tried to make him understand her position, "Please, take me away. Anywhere, I don't care."

He gave her a long look, contemplating whether or not this was a good idea or not. She'd just been through a trauma, shouldn't she want to be home, where she was safe and snug in her bed?

But that was just it. She didn't feel safe in her home anymore. Being in Mystic Falls made her feel like something was going to jump up from behind and either sink their teeth into her neck or snap it. She just wanted an escape. She wanted to pretend that her life wasn't made up of horror stories if only for a little while.

And she wanted Damon, of all people, to help her do that. Who was he to complain? So he turned her in the opposite direction so she was positioned in front of the departures board.

Gesturing grandly, one arm still hanging loosely around her shoulders he offered her the world. Literally.

* * *

**A/N: **When I wrote this I didn't really want Katherine to be the Big Bad. I wanted her to be sort of crazy but a little sympathetic. But now that I've seen the preview I think I'm gonna change that. She rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, now that this part's over I think we're at the point of the plot I'm more comfortable in so it'll get better.

And thanks everyone for the reviews! Please feel free to keep 'em coming. :)


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